


Shrunken Detective, Taken Away

by DaisukeKazamatsuri



Series: Takayama Harry, Kuroba Adoptee [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, Name Changes, Orphanage, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20316343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisukeKazamatsuri/pseuds/DaisukeKazamatsuri
Summary: Kudo Shinichi was prideful, some might even call him boastful.  Whatever the case, he got too caught up in tailing to notice the other man come up behind him.  Now he's stuck in a six year old body with no way home, and no one will believe his story.  Then comes Kuroba Kaito, Magician Extraordinaire, and suddenly Shinichi's world is turned completely upside-down.





	1. Shrinking Was The Start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheOneTrueBlue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOneTrueBlue/gifts).

> This was a lovely prompt request from my friend TheOneTrueBlue! They wanted to see what would happen if Shinichi didn't get away from the police the night he shrunk, and so a whole series spawned from there! The first part is a little angsty and kind of dramatic, but most of the rest of the series will probably be fun tidbits and moments between Kaito and Shinichi and whoever else comes to visit! Your comments are welcomed and ideas you would like to see are considered!
> 
> Also, the dialogue from the first section is all directly from the translation of the remastered Episode One.

Shinichi's head hurt. No, it more than hurt, it was killing him. His memory was a bit fuzzy and he felt kind of nauseous. His thoughts were in disarray, coming and going in fragments. Where was he? Where was Ran? What was that voice?

_“Hey, get over here! Someone's dead!”_

Oh, that made sense. If he was dead, his thoughts made sense. Why, though? Wait, he was poisoned, right? He'd felt like he was burning. His bones felt like they'd melted. Everything had hurt. Of course, he'd followed that shady guy. He'd caught him making an illegal transaction, but he'd forgotten about the other one. The one with the cold-blooded eyes. _So I really did die?_

_“No, he's still breathing! An ambulance! Call an ambulance!”_

What? _I'm alive?_ But that poison...the man had said it was newly developed, designed not to show up on autopsies. _I get it. That drug didn't work on humans. How lucky!_ So that meant he'd survived, he'd gotten away. Now he could expose those guys for their crimes.

_“How awful. There's blood pouring down his head.”_

Shinichi's eyes blinked open, and he found himself face to face with several uniformed officers, two shining flashlights at him and one on his radio, a fourth leaning down near his head, presumably to assess his condition. _The police? And a lot of 'em... Alright! At least I'll expose every one of those guys' crimes!_

One of the officers holding a flashlight leaned down toward him, smiling, “Come on. Stay with me, now. Can you stand, little boy?”

WHAT. “Eh?” Shinichi stared up at the officers in confusion, leaning back on his arms and with his legs folded in front of him.

The closer officer leaned in this time, asking “Are you okay, little boy?” as if the issue was that Shinichi hadn't heard him.

_Little boy? What's he talking about? I'm a second-year high school student!_ Shinichi's confusion mounted higher.

The officer with a flashlight lowered his stance a little more to be level with him, “How'd you get those wounds on your head?”

Shinichi's mind whirred a bit, _Wounds? That's right! When I was hit from behind by that man in black..._ Shinichi's hand flew to the back of his head as a wave of pain swept through him again, _oww...eh?_ The motion alerted Shinichi to his state of dress, his sleeve hanging over his hand, as if it were twice the length of his entire arm. His feet barely kept his shoes on, and his jeans were bunched up around his lower legs. _What happened to my clothes?___

_ __ _

_ __ _

A shadow came over him, and before he could react more than turning to look, one of the officers was picking him up from under his arms. “I bet you were scared, weren't you, little boy?” The officer lifted him above his own head, and Shinichi couldn't stop the widening of his eyes, “But we're here now, so don't worry.”

The officers kept talking to Shinichi, their voices light and low as if they were afraid to scare him, but Shinichi was lost in thought. _T-this guy...lifts my body so easily..._

The teen tuned in just in time to hear the officer on the radio confirm their location, “Yes, we're under the ferris wheel, and we've taken a young boy with cranial injuries into our care.” The officer turned to observe him, still held in the air, “We'll carry him to the medical room now. He's six or seven years old. I believe he's most likely an elementary school student.”

WHAT. _Who's an elementary school student?!_ In shock and unable to do much about it, Shinichi allowed the officer to carry him to the medical office of the park in practically a catatonic state. He didn't really snap out of it until the medical officer started to wrap his head in a bandage.

At that point, he was feeling pretty hysterical. He was being carried, _carried,_ by an officer barely a few inches taller than him, his clothes had to be bunched up along his limbs to expose his hands, and he knew he was babbling a bit. He started trying to explain the situation to the officers, but they simply stared at him with the plaintive smiles of an adult listening to a child's imaginings.

“Haven't I been telling you this whole time?! I saw them! A man who's smuggling weapons, and a man blackmailing him with negatives of that! But one more of their companions found me, and bam! He whacked me on the head from behind.” Even he could tell his voice was getting too hysterical, but something else was bothering him about it, and it almost felt like he didn't want to think about what that was.

The officer interrupted him, “Come on, little boy. You watch too many police dramas.” Now THAT was something he hadn't heard said to him in a long time. But that was besides the point.

“I am NOT a kid! I'm a second-year high school student!” This time, it was his anger that overrode his confusion, allowing him to scream in the officer's face, but it only resulted in laughter from the adults in the room. Shinichi clenched his teeth, and forced himself to think through what had been niggling at the back of his mind.

_Strange. Something's weird about this._ Shinichi looked around at the other people, feeling like everyone was too tall, too far out of his reach. He looked at his hand, seeing a much smaller appendage than he knew should be there, and felt the shock take over again.

His observation skills automatically tuned back into the conversation between the officers and the park personnel, “We just checked, but it doesn't look like there are any applicable reports of lost children.”

_Everyone's reactions..._

The officer was responding to the park worker, “His head is injured and bleeding...”

_These baggy clothes...and then...this voice of mine. Damn...is such a thing even possible?_ Shinichi frowned, but lifted his head, determined. _No...no matter how improbable something may be...there is always only one...._ There was a full-length mirror in the wall, used for medical examinations, and Shinichi needed to see what he looked like. He needed to see what had happened.

But his reflection startled him so much he had to brace himself against it, seeing his own shock crash onto his six-year-old face. The officers were right, he looked about six or seven, from head to toe. _What the...? This can't be happening, can it? To think my body has actually shrunk..._

“Like I said,” a voice cut in beside him, “he doesn't want to go home, and is telling us these wild stories.” The officers were chatting.

“So, there's a high chance he ran away from home, after all?”

“For now, all we can do is contact headquarters and have them watch him in the police child care center.”

_C-Child care center? Shit. No. He has to get away._ Shinichi turned to leave, to get through the window and get away, but one of the nurses caught him.

“It's okay, little boy, we'll get you home safe, okay?”

Trapped, Shinichi scrambled to find another way out, but found the officers surrounding him, primed to catch him before he could run away. Dread started to seep into the shrunken teenager, tingling from the tips of his fingers and flowing up his spine.

If there were any hope of him seeing anyone he knew again, he had to get away. The Child Protective Services would try to find his family, of course, but unless someone started believing his story, there was no way they'd find it. He'd be dropped into the nearest orphanage with an open bed, and he'd have no way of getting out.

So he fought.

Shinichi had never felt scared enough of anything to bite and kick as hard as he was doing, but it seemed that, now that they were paying attention to him, there were adults EVERYWHERE. He squirmed in grips enough to turn and bite into whatever was closest, he kicked hard at weak spots, he scratched and let his sleeves whip across faces, until finally one of the doctors managed to pin him down enough to administer a sedative.

He fell asleep.

……….

They must have kept him asleep for as long as they could, because he only got snippets of conversations and images for a while. By the time Shinichi was fully waking, he found himself in a small room with peeling wallpaper and a medical cot for a bed. His clothes had been changed for a hospital yukata, made to fit his current size.

Though the wallpaper had clearly faded, it seemed to have originally been white, and Shinichi noticed a curtain partition next to him. He sat up and leaned over to peer around the partition, spotting a desk and chair that might have looked the part in an abandoned school building. The wood was frayed, the glass was getting thicker at the bottom of each of the cabinet windows, and the medical supplies were largely sparse, but also largely empty. The only things counteracting the thought were the lack of dust on the supplies, indicating use, and the person hovering over the desk and seated in the chair.

Wait, they weren't hovering, they were laying across the desk, apparently asleep. Though, apparently not deeply, as Shinichi felt the cot squeak under him as he shifted in time with the sound of childish cheers calling faintly down the hallway. A scruffy looking man lurched up from his slumped position over the desk, his stethoscope flipping up a little with the movement.

The man rubbed at his eyes a bit, clearing the last webs of sleep from them, before turning as if to get up from the chair. He spotted Shinichi as he did, and the man nearly tripped as he faltered instead of getting to his feet. “You're awake! I was beginning to worry they'd overdone it.”

Shinichi had never been scared of doctors, but after having been put to sleep by one while trying to escape, he must have planted some sort of defensive reaction in himself. Instead of speaking, he flinched away, crawling back to the corner of the wall and folding into the fetal position, keeping his eyes on the edge of the partition until the man came around it.

The doctor (nurse?) kept a gentle smile on his face as he rounded the corner, keeping his arms and hands visible to Shinichi in a show of innocence, relaxing the shrunken teen slightly. “It's okay, you're at the Ekoda Orphanage, no one here is going to harm you. Are you feeling dizzy at all? Any problems with your memory? How old are you?”

Shinichi relaxed a little more at the first few questions, but tensed a little at the last one. He'd been laughed at the last time he'd answered that honestly, he didn't know where he was, and he didn't know what was going on. Some distant part of his mind remembered that Ran would probably be looking for him, but based on the angle of the light through the window at least the evening had passed. “Not dizzy, my memory is fine, I don't have a concussion anymore, the sedative is wearing off, and my age seems to only make people laugh right now. Not that I really blame them.”

The doctor's features twitched at the response, clearly trying to stay professional as Shinichi got to the root of what he was asking with words he probably shouldn't know. The age thing clearly threw him off, too, because his eyebrow raised after a moment in confusion. “How about a name, then? I'm Tokugawa Shoichi-sensei. I'm a doctor.”

Shinichi stared at the man for another moment. _I could...but would he believe me any more than the officers did? Would he think that I'm just making it up? Probably, but if I want to get back to Ran I have to take a chance._ “Kudo Shinichi.”

Tokugawa turned to his computer, typing something in and seeming to do a quick search. Shinichi waited in silence for a few minutes, unable to see the screen through its privacy cover without getting off of the bed. When the doctor seemed to finish what he was doing, Shinichi couldn't help curling in on himself again at the man's expression: pity, slight annoyance, frustration, and exhaustion. “I'm afraid I can't find any reports of a missing Kudo Shinichi. If you don't want to tell me your name, that's fine, but please don't give me a fake one.”

Shinichi felt his mind shut down, and his mother's long-forgotten training kick into overdrive. His emotions wouldn't help right now, and a blank slate was a better idea, but he couldn't even bring himself to talk this time. His hope of getting home was gone, closed off to him for as long as he was stuck here.

“Now, you do seem to be perfectly healthy, so there's no harm in bringing you to your room. Best get you settled in properly for the night.” Tokugawa held out his hand, and Shinichi took it in a cold daze, falling into the role of 'dependent, lost child' as easily as he had been trained to. Having an actress mother may have been a pain in the ass, but at least he knew how to take on a role when necessary.

Soon, he'd been introduced to his three new roommates: Taro (a ten year old abuse victim who seemed to have been in and out of the orphanage multiple times already, judging on the bruises and scars under his shirt, the familiarity with the room, and the faded layers of stickers spelling his name multiple times on the wall behind his bed), Yosuke (a nine year old rough-and-tumble street urchin, likely a permanent resident based on the scars on his face and arms and the painted letters behind his bed), and Hiiro (a thirteen year old who had either been recently turned out or orphaned by his family based on the lack of injuries past or present and the hastily scribbled name on a piece of white tape behind his bed). The last bed had been stripped of identifiers, but the residue of several layers of tape and stickers and the permanent dip in the center of the mattress gave away that it had been lived in before. The boys were mostly friendly (Yosuke was a little gruff, but he seemed to be welcoming the only way he knew how), but Shinichi was in too much shock to respond in kind.

When the doctor simply dropped off the few belongings the police had left for Shinichi and walked out of the room, Taro spoke up, “What's your name?”

Shinichi saw Yosuke and Hiiro flinch a little at the question, clearly understanding why a name wouldn't have been written for him. “Haven't got one.”

Despite more questions being asked, Shinichi didn't speak another word at all that night, nor for the rest of that week.


	2. Tricky Trickster Enters The Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaito volunteers at his local orphanage every week to provide entertainment for the kids and give the other volunteers a break. This week, there's a new boy in the corner and Kaito finds his attention gravitating to him like a lodestone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story takes place during Magic Kaito 1412 between the April Fools date of the Black Star heist. This means that the clock tower heist was about a month before, and there was no Edogawa Conan waiting on the roof of the Haido City Hotel for Kaitou Kid. As such, Shinichi does NOT know the name of the thief he chased, nor has Kaito ever met Shinichi face to face.
> 
> This also means that Kaito does not have a name to call Shinichi, and that he is likely to underestimate our favorite detective.

Kaito almost couldn't believe his luck. After the narrow escape from the clock tower last month, he had almost expected to have difficulty with the first part of this heist. Instead, the only one waiting for him had been Nakamori, and all the man had managed to do was cause an early dogpile on the roof of the Haido City Hotel. It spooked him a little, actually, how lucky he'd been this time when the clock tower had been such a near miss, so he was heading to his weekly stress relief a little early today. It was still a week and a half before the real heist, and he needed to let the Suzuki family plan their defense measures before he could unravel them.

So it was that he arrived at Ekoda Orphanage, he was greeted to a bit of a strange sight. Being Sunday morning, and early, he'd expected only the usual early risers: the high school age kids and the early volunteer staff, but he also found a curious little boy. The boy was clearly new, as Kaito knew all of the faces here at the Orphanage from his frequent visits, but the fact that he was curled up in a little ball in the corner made a strong grab for Kaito's attention.

Not sure how to approach without more information, Kaito grabbed one of the nearby kids. “Hey, Hiiro-kun, who's that?”

Hiiro turned to spot the boy that Kaito was pointing to, “Oh. Hey, Kaito-san. He's my new roommate. Tokugawa-sensei didn't give a name when he arrived, and when we asked he just clammed up and said he didn't have one. He won't speak to anyone, and no one knows what happened to him. He barely uncurls from that position to do more than move from one place to another and eat.”

Kaito felt his heart clench. There were very few reasons a new child entered the Orphanage with that kind of response, and the kid looked to be about six or seven. “Thanks, Hiiro-kun. I'll see if I can track down Tokugawa-sensei later. He's usually here on Sundays, right?”

“Yeah, but he'll be late today. Had an overnight shift at the hospital last night, so when he showed up practically listing over, the other volunteers sent him home to rest. I wish we could have another doctor available, so he could take the whole day, but...”

“I get it, Hiiro-kun. Thanks for the info.” Kaito waved at the young teen and walked steadily, deliberately, toward the little boy. When he got within about five feet, the boy twitched and peeked over his crossed arms. Kaito fought the reflex to flinch at the slight glare sent his way over the tiny limbs, and his gait faltered only for a moment before closing the last of the distance.

Poker Face slid into place, a wide, welcoming grin and soft eyes shifting over Kaito's features. A light pink rose slid out of his fist in his usual form of greeting, “Hey there. I'm Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire. What's your name?”

The child reached forward and gently gripped the rose, brushing his hand along Kaito's fist. A little huff of air came from behind the barrier of the child's legs and arm, and Kaito waited patiently for the little coughs to stop. Slowly, a voice weak and gruff with disuse, but still childishly high, broke through. “Doesn't matter. You wouldn't believe me anyway.”

Kaito didn't let his smile waver, even as concern swept over him. The child's reactions were not what he'd been expecting. There was dejection, yes, but no air of mourning. Instead, it seemed as if the child was defending himself from those around him because of something that happened with strangers rather than something that happened to family. There were no tears or tear tracks, and the child hadn't flinched or glared at his approach so much as observed Kaito from behind his barrier.

Of course, if there were some reason the child's name had been unbelievable, that would explain those reactions, but Kaito couldn't think of any reason why a name might be unbelievable without being a pseudonym or a famous figure. “Y'know, I'm kind of a weird person, or so my friends tell me. I bet I'd believe you. HOWEVER,” Kaito held up a finger to stop the child's protests, “how about a deal?”

The child gave him a curious look, intrigued but wary. “What kind of deal?”

Kaito grinned, “Three, two, one!” two of his doves burst out in a puff of smoke, with confetti following in their wake, before landing on the child's shoulders. “If my magic can make you smile, you tell me your name. I promise I won't tell anyone and I'll take your word for it. And if you figure out how I pulled off my magic, then you tell me your story and I'll see about taking you out for a day to meet my friends who might be able to help you with whatever trouble you've gotten yourself into.”

The child looked to be considering, and there was a flash of understanding in the gaze that took Kaito by surprise. After all, elementary school kids shouldn't be able to figure out his intentions, but this kid may have. “Okay, deal.”

Kaito grinned and held out his hand to shake on it, western style. Again, the child looked curious, but he reached with his empty hand and shook.

Deal made, Kaito turned back to Hiiro to ask when the others would be awake. He willfully ignored the child in the corner staring him down with the most intense eyes Kaito had been in front of short of Hakuba. It was actually making him nervous. It certainly hadn’t helped that Hakuba’s instantaneous accusation of his identity was still rattling him. Sure, the blond had gone back to England, but with the entrance of Koizumi, Kaito had hardly a moment to breathe. He was still rattled over a person seeming to know who he was at a glance, and another seeming to seriously suspect with a couple of simple conversations. The child’s intense stare seemed to drag those feelings straight back to the forefront.

There were times that the stare was alleviated, as the child turned it to the rose still held between his fingers. Kaito was relieved with that as he began setting up one of the tables, getting his materials ready and making sure his doves were settled into their places. He wasn’t sure what, but there was something about that child that made Kaito want to pull out some of his more impressive tricks to stump him. Some intuition told the magician to go for over the top tricks to get the smile he wanted.

It took another hour or so for the rest of the kids at the orphanage to be up and about, and when they saw that Kaito had arrived and already set up for his weekly magic show, he found himself swarmed with happy little faces. Grinning and making sure that each child would have his attention long enough to be fair to everyone, Kaito felt his attention shift into people-watching mode.

The child had been staring between him and the rose, at first, but had been fixated on the flower for the better part of half an hour now. It was as the local volunteer doctor walked in that that attention finally shifted. The child was glaring at Doctor Tokugawa like he’d been so personally offended that the world simply needed to know. Kaito found that very curious. The glare continued after the man had left the room, but Kaito was quick to notice that the rose was now held carefully and protectively, and yes, there was definitely a story worth digging up there.

“Okay, guys! Who’s ready for today’s show?” Kaito shouted cheerfully, drawing all the children’s attention to him, even the one in the corner. “Ready? Three, two, one.”

Kaito pulled a little slip of paper out of his jacket with one hand and a match with the other, lighting as it was exposed. He drew the two objects together and lit the paper in a brilliant flame, earning gasps from the audience, only to suddenly be holding one of the doves in the hand where the lit paper had been.

This got several cheers and gasps of delight, but the noise grew as he pulled at the dove and a second appeared in his other hand, the fire extinguished. Grinning, Kaito placed the two doves inside the cage set on the table, freeing his hands for the next bit. The doves settled quietly onto the perch inside the cage, huddling close to each other.

He stepped away from the cage again and pulled a long white scarf from his pocket, balling up one end a little and flipping it over his hand to the outside. He paused for dramatic effect before the scarf seemed to pull itself into his hand and another dove appeared in its place. Kaito pulled a loosely attached feather from the bird and stuck it in his mouth, tucking the third dove into the cage next to the other two.

Stepping forward again, he pulled another match from his pocket, lighting it, and held it next to the feather, setting it aflame in a flash of sparks and flipping his hand over, the sparks dying immediately and the fourth dove appearing on his hand. Holding the bird, Kaito held his empty hand out to the crowd a few times, flicking his fingers in a “nothing in this hand” motion before summoning an egg into it.

Kaito tucked the fourth dove into the cage and put the egg into the newly emptied hand. He tapped it against his forehead a couple of times, holding it out to his audience, then held it against his ear as if listening to it. Putting on an expression of confusion, he pulled the egg away again and cracked it open to reveal his smallest dove, who he then placed on his shoulder.

Pulling out another piece of paper and lighting it, Kaito summoned a collapsible cage and held it straight out for the dove to climb into. He then reached behind himself and pulled out a second, identical cage in a flash of sparks with a second bird inside. He waved one of the volunteers over, and had them take the two cages away, taking off his outer jacket and rolling up his sleeves.

Finally, he stepped behind the large cage holding the four doves and flipped the cover over the top. He gripped the sides of the top of the box shape beneath the cover, lifting toward himself carefully first, but quickly pulled the cover away to reveal a crouched Hiiro, who was smiling as he stepped off the table.

The kids all cheered, Kaito and Hiiro taking a bow, and the magician turned his gaze to observe the child in the corner.

He wasn’t smiling, but he looked to be very deep in thought. Kaito was looking forward to what the child would be able to figure out.

……….

As it would turn out, the child had figured out almost everything on first seeing it. He’d been able to deduce how each of the birds had been pulled out, how the flash paper igniting had covered the movement of each bird slipping out of the cuff of Kaito’s jacket, even how the little cages were just the right kind of collapsible to slip out the same way. What he could not figure out, and so what was causing a thoughtful frown upon his face, was how Kaito had managed to vanish the large cage while revealing the crouching Hiiro.

Kaito was stunned. This _child_ had figured out his tricks upon seeing them for the first time. Not even Hakuba, who had plenty of experience observing Kaito at this point in their day to day lives, nor Aoko, who had grown up watching Kaito practice, had figured that much out when they first saw his tricks. It always took at least two showings for them to start picking things apart.

Then, Kaito watched as the child walked over to the table, examining it for mechanisms, only to come back up with the frown in place.

But as Kaito watched, he saw the child notice some tiny little thing on the surface of the table, and a wide, victorious _grin_ came over his features. “They snuck back under your shirt as you lifted the cover.”

It was like Kaito had been hit by a train at light speed, head on. “What?” Too stunned to give a proper response, Kaito was at a loss for words.

The child’s grin turned into a full-blown joyous _smile_ and Kaito felt his heart melt at the sight. “It’s why you lifted it so slowly at first, giving them a moment to slip under the hem of your shirt. They left little claw marks on the table, fresh ones.”

Kaito felt as if his masks were transparent. Poker Face was nothing but a glass wall. This child, this amazing, beautiful, brilliant _child_ had seen through all of his tricks. And seeing through them had been what made him smile.

Kaito felt a slow grin seep onto his face. “Correct, Tantei-kun.”

The child’s smile turned back into a grin, “So I won our bet. I tell you my story, you get me help. No judgements.”

Kaito grinned and clicked his tongue, wagging his finger, “Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong, Tantei-kun.”

The child’s grin vanished into anger, “But you said--”

“_I_ said that if you work out my tricks, you tell me your story and I get you help. I _also_ said that if my magic could make you smile, you’d tell me your name. You were smiling quite a bit as you told me your deductions, Tantei-kun. You owe me a name along with that explanation.”

The child’s face went slack with shock. “So all of this, was just to get me to smile?”

Kaito’s grin turned more cheerful and less condescending, “It’s in my nature to get wayward souls to smile. Did you think I was here by chance?”

“I-- I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“Well then, how about I get that name and we can find a quiet place to talk about your situation?”

The child held Kaito’s gaze for a moment, searching for something, and it almost broke Kaito’s heart when, upon seeming to find it, the child’s face adopted hope so strongly the magician could swear he’d found Pandora. “Yeah. Know anywhere we can go?”

“Let’s head to your room. I doubt your roommates will want to spend the day in there, and if I ask for privacy then Hiiro-kun should help.”

As it turned out, the room was empty, but Kaito found Hiiro and asked to make sure it would stay that way for a while. Kaito settled onto one of the spare chairs in the room, across from the child who was sitting on his bed -- one without a nametag.

“First of all,” the child started, “my name is Kudo Shinichi.”

“Okay, that’s easy enough.”

“Second of all,” Shinichi continued, ignoring Kaito’s interruption, “I’m sixteen.”

_Now_ he had Kaito’s complete and undivided attention. The two sat across from each other for an hour. Kaito remained silent for the whole of it, listening to Shinichi’s description of the gruesome murder on the Tropical Land rollercoaster last week and the two suspicious men who’d been present for it. Listened as Shinichi described making a stupid mistake in tailing a suspect without remembering there had been _two_ of them, and as he’d been fed a poison that was supposed to be untraceable in the human body during autopsy. Listened as the vivid descriptions of the heart-attack-and-melting-bones feeling of the poison working on Shinichi’s body led into getting caught by the theme park police officers and being unable to escape home. Listened as the orphanage doctor clearly hadn’t done upon receiving a new patient and instead had taken even Shinichi’s _name_ as being a fantasy spoken by a runaway child.

But the thing that stuck the strongest to Kaito was Shinichi’s description of the two men he’d followed. It was too close to Snake and his crowd, but it sounded _even more dangerous_ and that meant that they _couldn’t know that Shinichi had survived._ After the story was over, and Shinichi was left watching Kaito for some kind of reaction, the two lapsed into silence.

Kaito had felt Poker Face shift back on, but couldn’t do anything about it while he was lost in thought. Shinichi started to fidget, pulling at the standard white shirt and school pants that the orphanage had been able to dig up for him in the week he’d been living here.

Finally, after about five minutes, Kaito spoke up again, “You have no idea how strongly I believe you right now. However, we have a problem.”

Shinichi looked up at that, trepidacious, “Problem?”

Kaito looked Shinichi dead in the eyes, “Those men are part of a much bigger group, and they’re very deadly. If they know you survived, they won’t only come after you. They’ll come after every one you’ve ever associated with, and if they figure out what happened? That includes every volunteer and child in this orphanage, never mind your childhood friends, their parents, your parents, your neighbors, your classmates, anyone whom you might have told of their existence.”

Shinichi’s face paled, “What should I do?”

Kaito didn’t even blink, “You should take a new name, go into hiding, work on gathering information on these people. Find a way to bring them down so thoroughly that they can’t come back from the ashes.” Kaito took a deep breath, “I’ve heard of you, Kudo-san. Hell, I almost met you, once, and your deductive abilities are incredibly high, but you can do nothing if you do not survive long enough to try.”

Kaito’s face adopted a sharp grin, “At least, in that case, I think I can help you with that. Since you confided in me, and I happen to be doing my own work against these guys, I can see if they’ll let me take you in. Then you won’t have to worry about faking your way through anything at home. Though you’ll have to go to school until we find a cure.”

Shinichi’s face seemed to be flickering through emotions faster than Kaito’s usually did, from shock, to fear, to pride, to confusion, back to fear, and finally back to that heart-breaking hope. “You’d do that for someone who was, essentially, a complete stranger?”

Kaito’s smile was soft around the edges, “Do you need a reason for that? You don’t need a logical reason to save someone, do you?”

Shinichi’s eyes widened in shock, a light blush lighting his cheeks, “I-idiot. Of course not.” He looked down and away, the blush taking up his whole face in seconds.

Kaito chuckled, “So, about that name. I think I have an idea.”

Shinichi stuttered but didn’t look up, “O-oh?”

“How about Takayama Harry? I happen to admire both Takayama Cyril-sama and Houdini Harry-sama, and it’s not so unusual to have kids with western names nowadays.”

Shinichi blinked and looked back up at Kaito, “I think I can live with that.”

Kaito grinned, “So, shall we go see if I can take you home, Harry-kun?” As he had when they made the deal, Kaito held his hand toward Shinichi, but this time it was asking to hold the other.

Shinichi hesitated for only another moment before taking Kaito’s hand, “Yes, we shall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The trick used above was shamelessly copied from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_KyTtJg10 and the solutions listed are only my imaginings. I have no actual way of knowing if my thoughts are correct.


End file.
